Farmer-to-Farmer

The primary goal of F2F in Kyrgyzstan is to generate rapid, sus-tained and broad­ based economic growth through short-term technical assistance in the agricultural sector. A second key program goal is to increase the U.S. public's understanding of international development assistance as well as international hosts' and program participants' understanding of U.S. foreign assistance and the American people through the personal, people-to-people exchanges that occur via the assignments.

Major Focus Areas

The fragmentation of the agricultural production base in Kyrgyzstan continues to prevent the region's farmers and agribusinesses from reaching the scale necessary for efficient production. Most production comes from small farms, which yield produce of inconsistent quality and quantities that are too low to meet market demand. F2F will contribute to capacity building of farmers, agribusinesses, women entrepreneurs and agricultural education and advisory services to advance economic growth by bringing technology transfer innovations through US agricultural specialists.

F2F will field at least 118 expert assignments to support the technology transfer amongst and organizational development of value chain actors in Kyrgyzstan, improving trade of fruits and vegetables; improving livestock production, encouraging import substitution with food processors, and enhancing input supply channels to increase productivity that allows profitable access to known domestic and regional markets.

Expected Impact

Rural Enterprises - F2F will improve the capacity of producers in production horticulture, orchards, homestead livestock value chains as well as non-agriculture activities to target women entrepreneurs to explore domestic and regional market opportunities. F2F will work with agribusinesses to improve financial management and accounting systems, strategic planning, business plan development and product development.

Agricultural Education - F2F will support public and private agricultural extension and advisory service providers to improve their capacity to transfer relevant technologies to serve agricultural development needs.

Rural Financial Services - F2F will implement a limited number of rural financial services assignments to support the non-bank financial institutions in developing their agricultural loan portfolio through risk mitigation strategies.

Accomplishments

As of August 2014, the F2F Kyrgyzstan team hosted six volun-teers. The volunteer assignments ranged from conducting the financial sector needs assessment with the Association of Mi-crofinance Institutions (AMFI), developing extension capacity building strategy with the Chui-Talas Rural Advisory Service to strengthening cold storage management and cooperatives. The assignments to-date were implemented in Osh, Batken, Issyk-Kul and Chui oblasts.